


A Strong Heart

by Haruhi_chan



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Isolation, Juvia being strong, KINDA fluff at the end, Loneliness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-26
Updated: 2016-09-26
Packaged: 2018-08-17 13:02:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,567
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8144974
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Haruhi_chan/pseuds/Haruhi_chan
Summary: Juvia wants to prove something to her loved one.





	

It was a cold winter day. Outside, she could only see the freezing trees creating a lifeless gray shadow through the white hills.   
"It is a very cold day, even for Juvia" she thought to herself.   
She had been staring at the snowy landscape for a couple of hours now, trying not to feel empty, fighting the loneliness with sheer willpower and trust. That's what kept her waiting. Waiting for the return of her loved one, waiting to see his face again, waiting to know that he was okay, that he didn't engage into some needless fight. Everything while staring at the bittersweet landscape filled with snow. Bitter because Gray was gone, lost for a weeks in the middle of an endless storm; and sweet because whenever she saw snow, she'd warm up her heart thinking of him.

"Wherever there's snow, there's Gray-sama" 

She kept repeating that to herself, as a kind of prayer, to bring him home safe.

 

~~~~~~

 

«"Gray-sama" she asked as he put on his long jacket and got ready to leave.  
"Yes, Juvia". He didn't face her way, didn't look her in the eyes, as she expected him to, and his voice sounded lifeless. It broke Juvia's heart a little bit, but she ignored the pain.  
"Do you really have to go? It's really dangerous out there, a storm's coming, and they say it's going to be bad!"  
Her words did not affect him the tiniest bit, despite her efforts to make him stay.  
"Where are you going?"  
That, also, was not meant to be shared — why would he have to tell Juvia everything he did? Gray was not the kind to share everything. She knew that he wasn't going to tell her, insisting was useless, he would never completely share his life with her, and that was something that she had accepted a long time ago. It hurt, yes it did, but it didn't hurt enough to make Juvia give up on her one and only love.  
He opened the front door, as he said a cold 'Goodbye' to her.

"Be careful, Gray-sama"»

 

~~~~~~

 

It was a really tiresome job, the one she had resigned herself to. From the moment he had stepped outside, her heart was already breaking. She'd given up on basic entertainments, as she couldn't fully concentrate on anything. She'd tried baking something delicious for when Gray-sama came back, but she ended up having to eat everything by herself, as he didn't return soon enough to eat her loving sweets. She could have thought it was unfair, and she almost did — but she trusted him enough to respect his privacy. Also, it wasn't as if he had ever showed the same kind of dedication that she did.   
"What will I do today.." she'd think to herself every day "Well, of course! Today Juvia will be strong too"

It was something that she wanted to prove him. Ever since they'd taken those vacations from the Guild, Gray had kept telling her to rely on her magic more, because she was stronger than she thought, and that her feelings and sensibility were only making her hesitate too much, and making her weaker. And that was something that Juvia had to disagree with.   
"Gray-sama", she'd told him "I don't need my magic to be strong, as long as I have a strong heart"  
Gray kept feeling that she wasn't fully understanding what he was trying to say.

More than anything, Juvia just wanted to show Gray-sama that having a strong heart meant a lot more than having a strong magic power. She wanted to show him that her love for him was stronger than any magic, and if he understood that, he would respect her love more.

 

~~~~~~

 

«"Gray-sama, are you going to bed early?", Juvia was surprised to see him putting on his pajamas so early and going back to their room.   
He yawned and mumbled something she didn't understand.  
"What?"  
"I just want to relax a little before I go to sleep" he said.   
Juvia was worried, as he hadn't eaten anything in a couple of hours, so she prepared him some snacks and took them to bed. Gray was surprised by how much she actually noticed about him, and gratefully ate everything.  
"Actually" he whispered, finishing the last drip of hot cocoa she'd made him, "I just wanted to think about my life"  
Juvia was surprised to hear something like that coming from Gray-sama.  
"Juvia will help in everything she can"   
His face turned into a gentle smile.

"You are fine, Juvia" he said, "You already help by being here"

 

~~~~~~

 

As each day passed by, a great amount of hours summed up to the ones that she'd already spent looking through the window. Juvia counted the days, the hours, and she only didn't count the seconds because she'd go mentally insane. Her life had become half numb, but never did she think of giving up.   
"Gray-sama.."  
It was hard for Juvia to understand his actions prior to his departure. He had been acting in a weird way, isolating himself more (even though they were already temporarily living in an isolated rental house in the middle of nowhere). Juvia had never seen him acting this way. The always so energetic Gray-sama was acting dull all of a sudden, and that was something she failed to understand.  
"If I show him how strong a heart can be, maybe Gray-sama will accept my feelings and go back to his old self", she thought.   
But the man wasn't there. The numbers were far too high, but she kept on counting. If there was a way to show her love, it was this way, she thought.

 

~~~~~~

 

One day, the storm started to clear. Juvia had already counted 34 days and 14 hours since Gray-sama had left without telling her where he'd go. The snow melting... Juvia wasn't sure how she felt about that. The comforting sight of the snow was disappearing, as well as the visual reminders of her love. The young woman knew that it would eventually happen, so she'd prepared herself for when the day came: she started to take his other jackets out of the closet and hold them tight whenever she was waiting, this way she'd be able to smell a bit of his scent. It didn't help much, though, since he preferred not wearing almost any clothes most of the time.   
Juvia wanted to cry. She wanted to cry really bad, but she kept telling herself "Gray-sama will return to Juvia. Juvia still has something to prove". And that's how she managed to keep the tears in. 

"Juvia is strong"

 

~~~~~~

 

Juvia thought it was just her imagination when she saw the silhouette of a man coming in the direction of their isolated house. Her heart started beating faster and faster — and so much stronger. She kept staring through the window, while holding one of Gray-sama's old jackets. 

Could it really be him?

She waited patiently, and those last few minutes lasted longer than the whole time that she'd spent staring at the void. She almost let go of some tears as she confirmed the man to be her love. "Not yet, Juvia", she ordered herself, "Not yet". Gray was walking very slowly, and he seemed to be carrying something, a little cardboard bag, like he'd just went shopping. He also looked tired.   
Juvia waited patiently for him to arrive, she didn't leave the chair that she'd placed by the window since the moment he had left. Gray walked faster as he got near their tiny house.   
The door opened.  
"Juvia?", he quietly asked, before removing his jacket and boots.  
"Juvia waited", she answered, after a while, sitting on her chair.  
It didn't take long for him to understand what she meant by that, since the house looked pretty much the same as from when he'd left.  
"Juvia..", he said, as he walked on her direction. "Are you okay?"  
"Juvia waited"  
She finally stood up and tried walking to him as well, but her legs were half frozen by the emotion, and her face was a mix of feelings.  
"Gray-sama..", she mumbled.  
Gray just ran over to her and held her deeply in his arms.  
"I'm sorry, Juvia, I couldn't tell you where I was going", he knew there was no way to apologize for how much the girl was hurt.  
"Juvia waited, Juvia is strong. Juvia... ", she hesitated as her first tears started to come out, "... never cried."

After a few moments of desperate crying from seeing Gray-sama again, she was finally able to recompose her posture, and tell him what she'd wanted to show him all this time.  
"Gray-sa—"  
"Juvia," he interrupted, "this is for you".  
He gave her the cardboard bag he'd brought with him. She found it weird for Gray-sama to have gone away and come back with a present, and she took a little longer than expected to open it, since her hands were shaking and her eyes were still a little teary. She opened it up to find a heart shaped necklace inside a tiny box.   
"What is this?" Juvia asked.  
"It took longer than I expected, since the trains were stopped due to the storm" the black haired man explained, "but I eventually found it" 

He gave her one of the biggest smiles he'd ever given someone.

"Thank you for being so strong for me, Juvia"


End file.
